Which comprehension strategy did the National Reading Panel identify as having the strongest evidence for effectiveness?

Which comprehension strategy did the National Reading Panel identify as having the strongest evidence for effectiveness?

• A. Asking readers to generate questions during reading
• B. Activating prior knowledge
• C. Visualizing
• D. Predicting

Answer: (A)

Fostering active engagement with the text is what this item tests, and the strongest evidence from the National Reading Panel points to generating questions during reading as the most consistently effective way to boost comprehension. When readers are taught to ask themselves questions—about what the author is saying, what they expect next, what parts are unclear, and how ideas connect—they take more ownership of understanding. This practice gives them a clear purpose for reading, helps them monitor their understanding as they go, and guides rereading or looking back for clues if something doesn’t make sense. The panel reviewed many studies and found that explicit instruction in question-generation produced reliable improvements in comprehension across diverse learners, more robust than the gains seen with some other strategies. So, encouraging readers to generate questions during reading best aligns with what the evidence shows about strengthening understanding.

Fostering active engagement with the text is what this item tests, and the strongest evidence from the National Reading Panel points to generating questions during reading as the most consistently effective way to boost comprehension. When readers are taught to ask themselves questions—about what the author is saying, what they expect next, what parts are unclear, and how ideas connect—they take more ownership of understanding. This practice gives them a clear purpose for reading, helps them monitor their understanding as they go, and guides rereading or looking back for clues if something doesn’t make sense. The panel reviewed many studies and found that explicit instruction in question-generation produced reliable improvements in comprehension across diverse learners, more robust than the gains seen with some other strategies. So, encouraging readers to generate questions during reading best aligns with what the evidence shows about strengthening understanding.